In honor of “Nephrology Nurses Week,” September 8-14, 2019, Daily Nurse is highlighting two very special dialysis nurses.

At 25 years old, Jackson, KY resident Bridgette Chandler was living with her husband and raising two young children while enjoying a satisfying career as a nursing tech.

Bridgette’s life changed forever after she rushed to the emergency room with what she thought was a case of the flu. Instead of flu, doctors informed her, she was actually suffering from kidney failure. During the long wait for a transplant she underwent arduous four-hour dialysis treatments three times a week.

Despite finding that dialysis made her “a completely
different kind of tired that sleep doesn’t fix,” in her determination to remain
actively involved with her young family, Bridgette opted for at-home dialysis at
the Fresenius Kidney Care clinic in Kentucky. With her home treatments, Bridgette
managed to experience all of the special events that happen in a family, from
games and recitals to the hubbub of birthdays and holiday seasons. She remarks,
“For me, being able to take part in special moments with my family was most
important and that’s why I chose home therapy. It gave me the opportunity to
take back some of the control of my health.”

Five years later Bridgette found a donor and had her kidney transplant surgery. Even before the hospital had discharged her, she asked her doctor how long she had to wait before she could start school and become an RN. Now, Bridgette is working alongside her former nurses, treating home dialysis patients at the same clinic that treated her. “Because of my personal experience, my intention had always been to become a nephrology nurse” she says. “I stayed in touch with my nurses and doctors who made such a difference in my life. When a position became available in the clinic with those nurses and doctors, I jumped on it.”

Bridgette’s experience also creates a special bond with her
patients: “helping patients find ways to make dialysis work for them has
definitely been beneficial. I’ve had so many patients tell me they respected me
so much more because I understand what they are going through. Many of my patients
have even told me that I give them hope. That is just as important to me
as it is to them. That’s why I wanted to be a nurse.”

Anne Diroll was also destined to become a nephrology nurse.

A year after losing her father to a sudden heart attack, 15-year-old
Anne was hospitalized for a week after being struck by a car.

During her time in the hospital, unable to walk, and suffering from a “huge hematoma,” she had plenty of time to think and look around. She saw—and deeply admired—the nurses who cared for her, and was inspired by fellow patients stories, learning of “tragedies and hardships in others’ lives that I had never experienced or been aware of at a young age, and [I] thought ‘this is a part of life that needs healing.’”

Anne began her nursing studies almost as soon as she was
discharged from the hospital. Initially working as a pulmonary nurse, when she sought
a new job, she “didn’t know anything about kidneys, except that they made urine.
In my interview for a dialysis nurse position, my interviewer explained that the
reason dialysis nurses exist is because [failing] kidneys don’t make urine, so
I was able to understand that dialysis is to kidneys as ventilators are to
lungs. I got the job and have been a nephrology nurse ever since.”

The American Nephrology Nurses
Association (ANNA) launched Nephrology Nurses Week in 2005 to give employers,
patients and others the opportunity to thank nephrology nurses for their
life-saving work. In addition, ANNA seeks to interest other nurses in the career
opportunities available in nephrology.

About 30 million adults in the
United States suffer from chronic kidney disease. The nephrology nurses who
treat them make a positive difference in the lives of patients and their
families every day. Caring for kidney patients requires nurses to be highly
skilled, well educated, and motivated, and nephrology nurses cite the variety
and challenges of the specialty as fueling their ongoing passion.

Under the aegis of the Diversity Impact (DI) Program at Frontier
Nursing University, faculty and students are the vanguard of the movement to diversify
the ranks of nurse practitioners and nurse-midwives and improve health care
conditions among the underserved and marginalized.

Frontier’s current Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Dr. Maria Valentin-Welch, takes great pride in the students’ achievements during and after their participation in the DI program, and says: “they are applying what is taught here in regard to diversity, inclusion, and equity, not only within their new areas of employment as graduates but across their communities. Some have established underserved programs, birth centers, and international programs. These students are passionate advocates for the underserved and disenfranchised people. They are the future catalyst of change.”

In addition to distributing some $300,000 in scholarship funds received through their Health Resources and Services Administration’s Nursing Workforce Diversity Grant, the program has implemented diversity training sessions for all faculty and staff and added diversity discussions to student orientation sessions. DI participants are also encouraged to attend annual conferences dedicated to fostering a more diverse, culturally aware health care workforce—where, under the guidance of a faculty mentor, students explore the benefits of active participation in professional nursing organizations.

The thriving program at Frontier received a 2018
Health Professions Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award
from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, and was cited as
a “Top College for Diversity.” In addition, the magazine added Dr.
Valentin-Welch herself to their Top 25 Women in Higher Education roster of standout
diversity advocates at US colleges and universities.

For an experienced professional proponent of diversity
and inclusion, the most daunting challenge, according to Valentin-Welch, is maintaining
belief in the goal of “uniting folks while our nation is receiving messages of
division and promoting actions of division and lack of compassion… However, I
feel midwifery and nursing have always held an important role in not only
listening to people, but also advocating for what is right.”

For further details on the Diversity Impact Program at
Frontier Nursing University, visit here.